The long-awaited groundbreaking for the new hospital facility took place on September 5, 1949. Previously, the hospital was located at the corner of Texas Avenue and Murphy Street. In 1946, a constitutional amendment that authorized the issuance of bonds to be secured by surpluses from the Confederate Veterans’ pension fund tax was approved. A twenty-three acre plot of land was purchased at the southeast corner of Kings Highway and Linwood Avenue.

Associated Hospital Architects, composed of the Shreveport firms of Samuel G. Wiener, Neild and Somdal, and Van Os and Flaxman, was chosen to design the building. The $6,039,000 bid from the J.A. Jones Construction Company was accepted and led to the second largest building permit ever issued in Shreveport in July 1949.

The new hospital even received a new name – Confederate Memorial Medical Center – derived from the major source of its funding.

The 32-members of the first freshman medical school class of the LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport completed forms, received physical examinations, paid tuition, bought books, and posed for photographs on the very busy day of September 12, 1969. The LSU School of Medicine was the 100th medical school founded in the United States and would be home for the next four years to the 31 men and 1 woman of this first class. The medical students began their first day of class a few days later on September 15th.

The new $12 million School of Allied Health Professions building, located just south of the Health Sciences Center on the corner of Dowdell St. and Claiborne Ave., was occupied in September 2007. Numerous problems with exterior brickwork delayed the actual completion, but most of the interior space was usable. Plans for the five-story, 75,000 square foot building date back to 1995. The new facility houses the programs for Cardiopulmonary Science, Clinical Laboratory Science, Physician Assistant, Occupational Therapy, and Physical Therapy, as well as the Children’s Center and the Outpatient Rehabilitation Clinic. More information on the School of Allied Health Professions can be found by clicking here.